“I will be a war­rior till I die.”

Those were the words of vet­er­an bois man Moses Ralph as he copped the King of the Rock ti­tle at the 2018 Na­tion­al Stick Fight­ing Com­pe­ti­tion in Point Fortin on Wednes­day.

At the age of 65, Ralph has no plans to slow down, say­ing that he would die for the art of stick fight­ing to live on.

While it was no easy feat to achieve, Ralph’s vic­to­ry came with the no­table ab­sence of Rio Claro Gayelle’s Sel­wyn John and Valiant Broth­ers’ O’Neil’ Odel, who have dom­i­nat­ed the cat­e­go­ry over the past five years.

In the fi­nal bout of the night, Ralph of the St Mary’s Gayelle, drew blood against Princes Town Gayelle’s An­der­son Mar­cano to take the ti­tle. But Mar­cano would have his glo­ry as the Princes Town Gayelle were the Kings of the Gayelle.

Speak­ing to re­porters at Clifton Hill Beach, Ralph likened stick fight­ers to Spar­tan war­riors, who were rat­ed at one of the best armies in his­to­ry for their dili­gence and dis­ci­pline. How­ev­er, he said love was need­ed in the art form for it to progress.

“What we need to up­grade stick fight­ing is love and uni­ty. When we play one an­oth­er, we must not vex with each oth­er. If we have to de­cide to play this game con­tin­u­al­ly, we have to have love in our hearts as stick war­riors. This game is for Spar­tan war­riors. This game is a blood sport and we must have love for our broth­ers,” Ralph said.

Ear­li­er on, Ter­rence Mar­cano of the Princes Town Gayelle and Daniel Bar­clay of the St Mary’s Gayelle were dis­qual­i­fied from the com­pe­ti­tion af­ter the bout broke out in­to an ac­tu­al fight. One of the ring­mas­ters who at­tempt­ed to part the fight was struck in the face by a bois. Po­lice at the event rushed to part the bois men and con­trol the sup­port­ers from en­ter­ing the ring.

There was a no­tably small­er crowd at the venue, which was on­ly con­firmed last week af­ter a boy­cott by bois men in the pre­lim­i­nary round had put the com­pe­ti­tion in jeop­ardy. Bois men had protest­ed for an in­creased in prize mon­ey.

Fol­low­ing a meet­ing with the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion last week, there were in­creas­es in prize monies